Enjoy this all-new way to play on game night and between campaigns in this collection of 400 trivia questions all about your favorite RPGs that’s fun or peruse solo or to quiz your friends between rounds.
Test your knowledge with The Düngeonmeister Book of RPG Trivia. With questions and interesting details about the history of tabletop gaming, your favorite game genres, and the media and video game connections you know and love, this new trivia book is sure to be a hit for seasoned gamers and newbies alike.
Featuring tons of questions to test your nerd cred, including:
CHOOSE ONE: In the popular Netflix series Stranger Things, the RPG-playing kids of the main cast routinely contextualize the monsters they encounter with famous creatures of D&D lore. Which of the following creatures have the not utilized as of season 4 as a name for a monster?
Vecna
Mind Flayer
Aboleth
Demogorgon
Answer: Aboleth
TRUE OR FALSE? Studded leather armor, a favorite of RPG thieves and rogues, is based on a misreading of historical text and never actually existed.
Alright, let me start this by saying Rob is one hell of a great person, and I'm proud to call him a friend. Some people talk about giving back to the gaming community, but Rob walks the walk. Look at Rob's hexcrawl, BlackMarsh. Not only is it free to download, but it is free to use in your own projects. Rob simply "gets it."
Now it's time to expand the frontier once more with The Northern Marches, and to reveal more of the world that Blackmarsh belongs to: the Majestic Fantasy Realms.
Each regions of the Northern Marches brims with ancient ruins, forgotten magic, and factions fighting to shape the future. The Ring Islands, the Forsaken Desert, the forest of Les Gigantov, the Great Glacier, the Black Marshes, the underwater realms of the Grey Sea, all await adventurers willing to brave their dangers and plunge into their mysteries.
Together, the Northern Marches span over 100,000 square miles, divided across four 12" by 18" maps overlaid with a numbered hex grid for easy reference. Its factions, characters, histories, ruins, lairs, and cultures form a rich tapestry, creating a living world that players can visit as their characters while seeking adventure.
And yes, Rob is releasing the new setting material to the gaming community under the CC-BY 4.0 license, to be built upon as needed.
This Kickstarter funds the art and editing for the following.
A 200 page Guidebook - A detailed reference to the Northern Marches in the hexcrawl format. It covers the region’s history, religions, cultures, and locales, along with a brief overview of the larger world of the Majestic Fantasy Realms.
Travel Rules and Encounter System - Included in the guidebook is an expanded version of the travel rules originally presented in How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox. It adds greater detail to overland journeys, caravan travel, sea voyages, and adventuring in the underwater realms of the Northern Marches.
Five 12" by 18" Referee Maps - Four maps depict the major regions of the Northern Marches: the Great Glacier, the Wild North, Blackmarsh, and Northport. Each includes settlements, terrain, islands, ruins, and lairs. The fifth map combines the corner areas where the four regions meet.
Five 12" by 18" Players Maps - These maps show the geography of the Northern Marches, but only include settlements and locations commonly known to the public, perfect for use at the table without revealing hidden details.
Two 12" by 18" Overview Maps - The two maps combine the four individual maps into a smaller overview of the entire Northern Marches. One for the players and one for the Referee.
Setting Reference Document - Text and markdown documents with the text and maps of the guidebook will be released under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC-BY 4.0) for use in your own projects and worlds.
I'm backing at 60 myself, and I backed one minute after it went live, and I'm only backer #8 ;P
I've said this before, and it bears repeating - I'm a sucker for settings. I rarely use any as written, but for inspiration, I find myself constantly adding to my collection.
Gods of the Forbidden North: Volume 2 details the underworld, which is an often overlooked setting. I may need to snag a copy for this reason alone. At over 500 pages, there is a huge amount of gaming material within, earning an excellent 4.7 stars with 17 ratings.
Gods of the Forbidden North is a massive, three-volume mega-adventure series written for the Old-School Essentials: Advanced Fantasy tabletop role-playing game by Necrotic Gnome. It details a campaign setting, a wilderness hex-crawl, a sprawling underworld connecting to multiple entrances on the surface, and most importantly, an enormous megadungeon.
Volume 1: The first book covers the arctic frontier's settlements, cultures, religions, and its vast wilderness regions. It includes 1 urban starter quest and 5 low-level dungeons.
Volume 2: The second book details the underworld below the continent's surface, plutonian settlements, 4 mid-level dungeons, 1 urban investigation adventure, and 1 high-level dungeon.
Volume 3: The third book explores the last undescribed hex on the wilderness map (hex 10.02) that contains the legendary Castle Thar-Gannon megadungeon, its upper and lower halls, 3 mysterious towers, and 3 vast dungeon levels. It also includes the Cyclopean City of Chaos, with 23 unique tower dungeons, plus the secret entrance into the Tesseract of Time.
The 532-page second volume is designed for a heroic party of 6-8 adventurers to begin at 5th level and reach a minimum of 9th level by the book's conclusion, although most parties will hit 10-12th level if all underworld encounters are exhausted. Though the mega-adventure was originally designed as a sandbox campaign, it also supports episodic adventure path playstyles, as well.
This second volume begins with the heroes returning to Kangkul after dealing a fatal blow to Ashuraga in the Tower Vartoriak. In “Diggers of Dul’ghuun,” the adventurers rest in a popular tavern called The Beating before heading off on their next adventure, but while therein, a small group of ravenous undead emerge from the tavern’s cellar and attack the patrons. After the party destroys them, they discover a tunnel into the caverns below the establishment. The heroes reach the massive stone doors of an ancient dwarvish citadel called Mimnohgrod and must explore its depths to determine how this attack occurred.
In “Children of the Green Light,” the heroes venture back to Valkengard to sell the treasures they’ve obtained in Vartoriak and Mimnohgrod. Lady Thora visits the adventurers. She has a new lead on her missing son, Itarus, who vanished after being kidnapped by the Graven Wolves in months past. Thora hires the heroes to find her only surviving family member. This urban investigation takes the party across multiple city districts and eventually into the Valkengard sewers where they uncover a heinous plot by a noblewoman (and secret Magoth cultist) named Lady Moranna. If the adventurers act quickly, they might rescue Itarus from the sinister woman’s clutches and eradicate the cult’s underground operations.
As the party wraps up their previous quest, they learn vital information concerning a long-standing nemesis: the infamous crime boss, Yagha-Shahn. In fact, the heroes discover an arcane means to enter the Nol’ocuul Syndicate’s headquarters. Seeking to settle old scores, the adventurers activate the Shadow Door and step inside the Tower of All-Seeing Eyes where they face extreme peril. If the party emerges victorious, they have permanently crippled the syndicate’s operations in Titherion, slain Yagha-Shahn, and taken his fabulous wealth (gold and jewels beyond measure)!
Obtaining Fire-Eye’s notes on a secret smuggling lane into the underground, the adventurers may decide to finally journey into the legendary “Malgorgia the Endless Underworld.” This staggeringly huge subterranean network of caverns, tunnels, and waterways crisscrosses the full breadth of the Forbidden North below its frigid surface. Within its shadowy depths, the heroes might find the secret entrance into the “Green Dome of Foranadoth,” the “Black City of Morgathaur,” the perilous “Malum Hateus,” and the “Brass Temple of the Magoth.” The stalwart companions also get the chance to recover both halves of the Tabot of Law, fight against two more members of the Tarngrak, as well as eradicate their ruthless foes within the Cult of the Magoth. The party might even discover secret pathways into the lower dungeons of Castle Thar-Gannon.
I am a HUGE fan of Kevin Crawford's works. When I look at the titles in this collection, I own all of them - in Print AND PDF. It is simply great stuff, and the quality speaks for itself.
Sine Nomine Coorebooks is currently available as a bundle onBundle of Holding. The Starter Collection @ 12.95includes Stars Without Number Revised Deluxe (Sci Fi), Other Dust (Post Apoc), Spears of the Dawn (African Fantasy), and Cities Without Number: Free (Cyberpunk and freely available outside this bundle)
For about 26 bucks total, you get to add in Worlds Without Number Deluxe Edition (Fantasy), Wolves of God: Adventures in Dark Ages England, the one-on-one FRPG toolkit Scarlet Heroes (Fantasy), and the horror RPG Silent Legions.
Adventurer! We've resurrected our November 2023 Sine Nomine Corebooks Bundle featuring the complete Deluxe Editions of Worlds Without Number and Stars Without Number, along with Wolves of God, Silent Legions, and other standalone tabletop roleplaying game rulebooks by acclaimed designer Kevin Crawford of Sine Nomine Publishing.
From many past offers (mostly 2013-2017) we've assembled seven complete standalone rulebooks with a huge array of system-independent sandbox gaming tools. Easily generate kingdoms and AIs, planets and pantheons, cults and factions, monsters and mechs, dungeons and starships, and tons more. These tools make creation easier for even the most experienced GM – and they make a great gift for a roleplayer new to Sine Nomine games. (To give a Bundle of Holding as a gift, log out of your current browser session, then purchase the offer using the recipient's email address.)
For just US$12.95 you get all three titles in this revived offer's Starter Collection (retail value $50) as DRM-free ebooks, including the complete Stars Without Number: Revised Edition Deluxe, the post-apocalypse SWN spinoff Other Dust (plus the free supplements Grandfather's Rain, Cult of the Still Lady, and Cult of the Wraith), and the African fantasy Spears of the Dawn. As a convenience, we also include the free version of Kevin's cyberpunk game Cities Without Number.
And if you pay more than the threshold price of $25.41, you'll level up and also get this revival's entire Bonus Collection with four more titles worth an additional $75, including the complete Worlds Without Number Deluxe Edition, Wolves of God: Adventures in Dark Ages England, the one-on-one FRPG toolkit Scarlet Heroes, and the horror RPG Silent Legions.
The whole "A Magical Society" series of releases from Expeditious Retreat Press is a goldmine for GMs of all sorts. I have a complete collection, some of them in print, and all in PDF. They are essential reading for planning and running a campaign that lives and breathes.
A Magical Society: Silk Road is a 160 page supplement detailing great overland trade routes. Borrowing extensively from the caravans of Central Asia,
A Magical Society: Silk Roadcovers a variety of topics: what factors engender great overland trade routes, what elements accompany the existence of silk roads, and how do caravans function on the road (with consideration to terrain). Due to general unfamiliarity with Central Asia, an entire chapter is dedicated to the historic Silk Road with maps detailing the major trade destinations. And last but not least, there is a trade system with over 1,000 trade goods, giving ultimate tools for economic simulation.
I first found Deadlands before it spawned the Savage Worlds system. Back then, DeadLands stood on its own. Nowadays, you'll need a copy of the Savage Worlds ruleset. Truth to tell, that shouldn't be an issue for most, as it seems everyone I know, even those who never play Savage Worlds, have copies of the Savage Worlds ruleset from one edition or another.
Gather your posse for an awesome TTRPG party with Deadlands: Reloaded. Roleplay as a squinty-eyed gunfighter or card-chucking hexslinger in this alternate-history, fantasy-based retelling of the American West before the end of the 19th century. Our Deadlands: Reloaded Megabundle offers countless hours of action-packed adventures, expansions, and more—like Deadlands Reloaded: The Flood and Deadlands Reloaded: Stone and a Hard Place. Pay what you want and help support the American Cancer Society with your purchase.
Twilight: 2000 2nd Edition Version 2.2 is an update to the original 1984 Edition for Game Designers Workshop (updated in 1993). This edition is from Mongoose. I ran a short campaign of this in my college years in the late 80s. There are lots of good memories, but I think near the end, my players were tired of always "scrounging for fuel."
The War has raged for years The high-tech ammo is almost gone. High-tech equipment is failing, piece by piece, with no spares to fix it. The front lines are held by a few grim, desperate soldiers.
The US 5th Division holds the line in Poland. Now, a Soviet encirclement has cut it off in a province ruled by ambitious warlords, local militias, and bands of marauding deserters. HQ is 200 klicks to the rear and powerless.
Your last order sets you free...
"Good Luck. You're on your own."
Here's What You Do
Generate Your Character: You select your nationality, chracter type, and your military and nonmilitary backgrounds.
Equip Yourself: use your money for weapons, ammunition, equipment, vehicles and spares.
Start Moving: You're in hostile territory. Your next encounter may be a friendly farmer, a frightened refugee, or a dangerous deserter. You pick your course of action; you decide your own fate in the chaos of World War III.
Twilight 2000's award-winning game rules provide the foundation for role-playing in the chaos of World War III.
Combat: Fast-playing, easy-to-resolve comabt system gives the feel of modern battles.
Travel: Types of travel, time scales, vehicles, encounters, maintenance, fuel, repairs.
Encounters: Dangerous environments, radiation, disease, contaminants, reasons for encounters and typical adventures.
I know. Goodman Games has been in the gaming news recently. This is a riff off of Goodman Games' DCC RPG. If you ever thought the DCC RPG would be a good fit for the Cyberpunk genre, Cyber Crawl Classics is for you.
You’re a Runner: a rigger, an infiltrator, a street samurai, a cool-headed hacker executing programs in the metaverse. You seek corruption and creds, winning it with console and chrome, bathed in the blood and filth of the oppresive, the megacorps, the police, and the artificial. There are payloads to be won deep in the Sprawl, and you shall have them.
Return to the glory days of cyberpunk with Cyber Sprawl Classics. Adventure as 1984 intended you to.
I have a genuine fondness for OSRIC. Upon my return to active gaming, when I was thrust into the DM's seat on short notice, I opted to run OSRIC. AD&D 1e is my system of choice, and OSRIC is the clone that cleans up 1e and puts it into an easy-to-reference volume. That worked well with Rob Conley's Blackmarsh (Free OSR Sandbox).
The 2006 retro-clone of first edition AD&D, rewritten and reorganized for 2025! OSRIC 3 is easier to learn, with more examples of play. This is the beginning of a new product line for Mythmere Games, to include adventure modules and much more!
OSRIC 3.0 is a tabletop fantasy roleplaying game that sweeps you back into the days when roleplaying was an art, when rules were simpler, and when epic adventuring was at its height — this is the game of the 1980s!
OSRIC is a “retro-clone” of first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.* This release is geared toward the 20th anniversary next year. Originally published in 2006, OSRIC has spawned thousands of adventures, sourcebooks, and zines — many of them distributed for free.
Are you a busy GM? Does session prep take too long? Do you never have time to work on the cool little details that bring your adventures, dungeons and campaign to life?
Fear not.
This dread compilation gives you, the time-crunched GM, the tools to effortlessly add verisimilitude and detail to 100 different types of monstrous lairs. Use the material herein either before or during play and bask in your players' adulation.
You can use the lists herein before or during your game to help breathe life into a monster’s lair. Adding depth and verisimilitude to your game helps the players’ (hopefully willing) suspension of disbelief and leads to a better game.
Use the system-neutral material herein either before or during play and bask in your players’ adulation.
This product is a Dual Format PDF and comprises two versions, one optimised for printing and use on a normal computer and one optimised for use on a mobile device such as an iPad. The download for this book now includes individual text files complete with markdown formatting for each of the Monstrous Lairs instalments presented within.
This book is compatible with every edition of the world's most popular role-playing game!
"For the sun gave forth its light without brightness, like the moon, during the whole year.” So wrote Byzantine historian Procopius of the year 536 A.D., the year the first of three catastrophic volcanic eruptions in Iceland would drop global summer temperatures by 1.5 to 2.5 degrees Celsius and herald the beginning of the coldest decade on record in 2,000 years. Migrations of Germanic, Hunnic, and Slavic tribes have swept aside and now pick over the remains of the Western Roman Empire, sacking Rome itself and establishing a network of “barbarian kingdoms” across the west. Crop failure, famine, the Justinian Plague will devastate a fractured Europe for the next hundred years. Of all the time periods called the “Dark Ages,” this is surely - both literally and figuratively - the darkest.
This historical context is interwoven with both “authentic” medieval folklore and the classic elements of 19th- and 20th-century fantasy fiction found in your typical Appendix N. This ‘Dark Year’ and all of its tumultuous events provides players and Judges a compelling backdrop upon which to project historical fantasy adventures. While based upon historical context, these are works of fiction: liberties have been taken where doing so would be entertaining. Weave fiction and fantasy as you please, and above all: Fight On!
This book contains 95 pages of rules for: expanded character creation, cultures, languages, soubriquets, mass combat, social status, equipment, estates & strongholds, trade goods & services, crime, punishment & trials, medicines, poisons, and retainers - - everything referees and players could want to set their old-school fantasy role-playing campaigns within a 6th century Europe historical fantasy setting.
I seem to collect RPG settings. Ever since AD&D 2e, with its endless proliferation of settings, it seems like I collect more settings than I'll ever use in multiple lifetimes. I have a special affinity for darker settings, like Dark Sun and Midnight, because they make heroic characters seem even more heroic in nature, as they try to hold back in the inevitable tide.
Rune & Relic Press invites you to the Lands of Formoria; a campaign setting in the world of Asterra with a rich history that has been developed through decades of game play. This guide offers a detailed milieu in which to place your adventures. It has a particular flavor, detailed locations, cultures, religions, politics, npc’s, and history. Although this book was written for use with Shadowdark the RPG. Most of the content here is system agnostic and entirely usable in other systems.
The setting of Formoria echoes 4th century dark ages Europe in flavor and theme. It lies on the northern fringes of “civilization” having been settled and colonized by civilized peoples from the Katalian Empire roughly 150 years ago. The world of Asterra was developed and written by Bryan O'Doherty over the span of two decades of actual game-play. The history of heroes and great deeds, magical items and artifacts and the current state of cultures, kingdoms and empires is the result of actual at-the-table gameplay since '99.
THE FORMORIA MAP PACK IS NOW INCLUDED WITH YOUR PURCHASE OF THE PDF!
OSE is probably "Thee" OSR Ruleset, having unseated Labyrinth Lord (or rather, LL simply fled the field of play). I have everything in the OSE Advanced Fantasy Bundle. If you don't, grab this bundle now!
Adventurer! This Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy Bundle presents Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy, the complete and definitive version of the Old-School Essentials tabletop roleplaying rules set from Necrotic Gnome. Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy is a complete "best of" retelling – it's the Basic/Expert Dungeons & Dragons rules, streamlined and expanded with reams of new character options, monsters, and magic inspired by Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition (1978): assassins, poisons, drow, half-orcs, mimics, xorns, vorpal swords, ioun stones, and even the dreaded tarrasque. Presented in the clear and elegant Old-School Essentials style, and 100% compatible with the Basic/Expert rules, these voluminous digital tomes are perfect for anyone new to Old-School Essentials. And if you already love OSE, check the twelve complete adventures in this lineup, designed by old-school luminaries like Brad Kerr, Diogo Nogueira, Luka Rejec, and many more.
For just US$7.95 you get all three complete rulebooks in this offer's Starter Collection (retail value $37.50) as DRM-free ebooks, including the Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy Player's Tome, Referee's Tome, and Advanced Fantasy Reference Booklet, along with several free play aids.
And if you pay more than the threshold price of $19.98, you'll level up and also get this offer's entire Bonus Collection with six more titles worth an additional $65, including Old-School Essentials Adventure Anthology 1 and Anthology 2 plus four full-length adventures: Halls of the Blood King, Holy Mountain Shaker, Incandescent Grottoes, and Isle of the Plangent Mage.
Not only are the rules for Hulks & Horrors PWYW in PDF, but they are also PWYW in Print!
Are you looking to play some science fiction, without straying too far away from classic dungeon crawls and/or hex crawls? (unless you want to!) Hulks & Horrors may be the very game for you.
We are not alone in the Universe, but we have few friends. As we emerged on the galactic stage, we found a universe stripped bare of sentient life by a great Plague, leaving only the wild beasts and twisted plague horrors wandering the ruined hulks of lost civilizations.
We are the Surveyors. We explore the uncharted sectors of space and hunt these ruins for the treasures they contain and the riches they might bring to what sentient life remains. We are not brave, merely foolhardy and desperate. Those who survive become rich beyond dreams. Very few survive. Hulks & Horrors is a science-fiction roleplaying game of galactic exploration and adventure for 2 or more players ages 13 and up. Inside you will find:
Complete rules for characters up to Level 6 and beyond
7 character classes: Pilot, Scientist, Soldier, Psyker, Hovering Squid, Omega Reticulan, and Bearman.
Easy to learn old-school inspired game rules and combat system
Weapons, armor, and equipment inspired by classic science-fiction
Spaceship construction and combat rules
Random tables for creating whole sectors of space
Loot generation rules
Dozens of alien monsters as well as guides for designing your own
Dungeon-mastering advice for sandbox space exploration
A bit of an OSR Kitchen Sink of a supplement, Tarnhelm's Tome of Wonder is a collection of optional rules for the OSR ruleset of your choice. New classes, new magic, psionics, super powers, and much, much more. Make sure this is in your toolbox, and use what you like and ignore the rest.
Tarnhelm's Tome of Wonder: An Original Edition Toolkit is large collection of optional rules and subsystems for the original 1974 (0e) version of the world’s most popular tabletop fantasy roleplaying game (and modern clones), with a selection of new monsters, treasures and ideas for dungeon and wilderness hazards tossed in for good measure. Many of the optional rules are modern renditions of the better house rules the author used with his Original Edition games in the 1970s. This volume may be considered a revised and greatly expanded edition of our free Tarnhelm's Terrible Tome (from 2014) presented entirely as optional modules instead of as a supplement revising the game.
Tarnhelm's Tome of Wonder is full of options -- some of them mutually exclusive as they provide different ways of doing basically the same thing. It's a toolkit for an Original Edition Referee to select from to use as written or as a starting point for homebrewed material that better fits their needs.
Section I provides many optional rules and systems for Backgrounds and Talents, Heroic Characters, Psychic Gifts, Variant classes, Combat Stunts, Mobs, Hit Point Powered Magic, Common Magic, Divine Intervention, Funerals and Tombs, Mooks, Property and Finance, Psionics, Death and Dying, Encumbrance and Movement, Allegiance (replacing Alignment), Wound Points, and about 40 more!
Section II covers the “endgame” where PCs run their own domains and provides two systems: one simple and one more complex. Basic rules for mass combat are also provided.
Section III has more monsters (mythos monsters and human cultists) and guidelines for NPC adventuring groups.
Section IV provides over 18 pages of new treasures, including some designed for use with some of the optional rules in Section I.
Section V talks about “hazards” for both dungeons and wilderness areas.
Section VI provides two different system for mutations -- one simple, one complex. Although these guidelines are mainly intended for Referees to mutate monsters, these rules can work for mutated player characters.
Section VII gives a selection of comic book style superpowers designed to work with the Original Edition. While brief, experimental rules for superpowered PCs are included, this section is really for the Referee to model comic book superheroes should the PCs ever encounter any.
Section VIII gives some simple rules for firearms of different eras.
Wow! Return to Fel'Valashar [Swords & Wizardry] was written for Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day way back in 2017. I kinda forgot that was a thing for a couple of years, even if I was the one to think it up. I'm curious what the flavor is now - a particular system, or maybe an OSR Appreciation Day...
Written in celebration of Swords and Wizardry AppreciationDay 2017, Return to Fel’Valashar picks up where Dungeons of Fel’Valashar left off. In this book is a collection of mini dungeon adventures with a small region called Fel’Valashar that they take place within. Each of these adventures is written in such a way that they don’t have any ties to each other or to Fel’Valashar. This means you can easily drop them into your own world with no fuss.
Includes:
Details of the south-western region of Fel’Valashar.
Okay, everything I've read about Pestilence at Halith Vorn is that it is one of those rare modules/adventures - rave reviews across the board and written for that sweet spot for the party, where their powers are coming into focus but aren't overpowering just yet. This looks to be a fun one, not just to play in, but to run.
An Adventure for six to eight 4th to 6th-level characters:
In the days before the rise of the Jade Empire and the rule of the serpent men, the enigmatic axolittians reigned in Halith Vorn and there built their cities amongst the reeds in the swamps and caverns below. They mastered sorcerous arts and paid homage to devils and terrifying elemental beings. In the end, their serpent men slaves rose up and rebelled against their rule, driving the axolittians into the lower caverns; there they lingered on, slowly degenerating to a primitive and base level. In turn the Jade Empire was cast into ruin, and the former slaves of the serpent men occupied parts of the once great city. Finally came the Cultists of Thul, worshipers of disease and inheritors of serpent man sorcery, enemies of civilization and the Baron in Longfelt, searching for a weapon of great power...
This is an adventure of warring cults and lost civilisations. This module presents a time—and exploration-focused site that can be used with existing Gunderholfen campaigns or slotted easily into any other milieu. It consists of 300+ keyed areas detailing a disease-afflicted and doom-laden village under assault by corrupted, power-hungry cultists; a hex-crawl region; and a main adventure site of ruined temples, tombs, a five-level dungeon, and two planar complexes.
Review:
"I’m a big fan of this. I wish I could better convey all that makes it work. The factions, the cultists proper. The interactivity and variety of types of things to do and explore. It’s really all of the components integrated as a whole, working together to bring something more than the sum of its parts. Design.
Generally, I think, I might find one adventure a month or so that is not terrible or even good. Then something like this comes along; something that is not just good but is F*$&ING GREAT." Tenfootpole.
I am a HUGE fan of Raging Swan Press. If you are an improv-style GM, their releases should be in your toolkit. Raging Swan's Dressing Collection for 14.95 is an amazing deal! Grab it now!
Overworked gamemaster, does prep for your tabletop fantasy roleplaying game sessions take too long? Do you never have time to design the cool little details that bring your game to life? Turn to the Dungeon Dressing system-neutral gamemastering resources from Raging Swan Press. "Dungeon dressing" is the art of adding small, evocative details and minor points of interest to your dungeons, cities, and wilderness encounters. These details help you breathe life into your creation – to set the scene and tell a story. Dungeon dressing helps your players suspend their disbelief and immerse themselves in your game. No matter what fantasy game you're playing, add color to every scene with the themed lists, flavorful characters, names, items, and riddles in this all-new Dungeon Dressing Bundle of fully bookmarked .PDF ebooks compiled from Raging Swan's Dungeon Dressing series.
For just US$14.95 you get all four complete compendia in our Dressing Collection (retail value $63.50) as DRM-free ebooks, including GM's Miscellany: Dungeon Dressing, Wilderness Dressing, and both Urban Dressing I and Urban Dressing II.
It appears that Greg Chistopher, AKA The Chubby Funster, has a birthday, and he's celebrating by putting damn well near the whole Chubby Funster Store Fronton Sale! There's a ton of amazing releases for ShadowDark and more!
The Companion Expansion (not to be confused with the B/X Companion) is an add-on for OSR rulesets with new classes, new spells, new creatures, new magic items, and more. Did I mention it was PWYW?
Presenting additional creatures and magical items for fantasy roleplaying games for basic- and expert-level players and gamemasters, including 7 additional character classes (bard, druid, gnome, half-elf/half-orc, half-ogre, illusionist, scout), expanded experience tables up to 36th level, two additional types of magic (druid and illusion) and additional magic-user and cleric spells (90 in all), over 130 new or additional creatures, dozens of new or additional magic items, and a complete treasure generation system!
Also includes expanded spell lists for three free "retro-clone" rulebooks and expanded combat, saving throw, and other tables. Use these rules to expand your campaign in the WORLD OF STRONGHOLD or wherever your games are set! Note: this free download version does not contain art. Print version available at www.barrataria.com.
I prefer low-level adventuring (and lower-level campaign play overall). Once you get to high-level play, off-the-shelf adventures often fail to be an appropriate challenge for your group of players (too easy or too difficult), and things can get a bit swingy. Low-level play is where it is at IMHO.
Winds of the Ice Forestis a low-level (levels 1 to 3) adventure for Labyrinth Lord. The fact that it is a J.V. West-written (and drawn) adventure has me downloading as I type! ;)
The dreaded Ice Forest! Once a safe passage to the north, now the forest's evil magic seeks to trap and confuse travelers with ever-shifting paths full of terrible dangers. New monsters, new magic items, new magics!
This adventure for character levels 1-3 was designed for Labyrinth Lord but can be used with any old school dungeon-crawling RPG. It is a drop-in locale that can be played through in a few hours or in a much longer session...per the needs of your gaming group.
Friday Fantasy: Dark Visions
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*Dark Visions* does not waste a lot of time before getting down to brass
tacks. Three lines make up the back cover blurb and there is no
introduction befo...
Stonehell: Death of the Giant King
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Session 297 was played on 08/17/25
Morgana, wizard 10 (Rob)
Borumar, Triton Thief 11 (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter 8 (Lanse)
Nick, Fighter 8 (Me)
Koltic,...
Games Workshop Against Satanism
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An interesting theme is developing as the AI revolution unfolds: people
don't have much of a problem with AI use in things they don't care about,
but they ...
Give a Hand
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I'm just going to assume that you're all staring open-mouthed and in awe
that not only am I producing a logical, straightforward way of explaining
the ga...
Happy Birthday, Eric!
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Today is Eric Bloat’s birthday. Since he’s my favorite Batman fan, I
thought it would be fun stat up Birthday Boy, the first costumed villain
faced by Batm...
The Grotesques’ Grotto
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By Amerlia LukeNecrotic GnomeOSELevels 2-4 When an earthquake unseals the
long-buried temple of the wild god Iakos, whispers of visions and ancient
treasur...
Intergalactic Skills
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Oh, you thought your job on the ship would give you skills?
As if. Only *life* can give you skills, and that's something you don't get
much choice in.
W...
Heading out to PAGE
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Packing up and heading to the Philadelphia Area Gaming Expo.
I’ll be running Scourge of the Demon Wolf and The Deceits of the Russet
Lord on Friday and S...
Musical Monday: Shots Fired (Negro Terror)
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So, I have a much happier song that I've been meaning to post, and
hopefully I'll get to that one within the next day or so (maybe even
today?), but man ...
Strelets Streltsy
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Strelets includes this little guy, or a mini like him, in all their soft
plastic 1/72 figure sets, regardless of the actual subject matter of the
set.
...
Map Attack, First of 2026
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My first map attack of 2026. I primarily focus on smaller maps for shorter
adventures. This one is a multi-level one. The second level is in the
works. ...
Njörun’s Altar: Map26.01
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Njörun's Altar is a small temple facility hidden in the foothills. This
unique temple is dedicated to the goddess of dreams, multiple rooms are
said to be ...
Hello 2026
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I didn't post a lot last year and looking through my lists, I have a lot
of unfinished and barely started posts to work on. The seeming slowdown
however...
Mainstreaming's Trade-Off World...
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There's never been a better time to be a gamer. It's our golden age. The
mainstreaming of the hobby means we're no longer dismissed as nerds (not a
pejor...
Free GM (and Player) Resource: Groupfinder
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[image: Free GM (and Player) Resource: Groupfinder]
I got a Blogger message notification a couple days ago from the folks over
at Groupfinder, asking if I...
Year in Gaming 2025
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Here we are in 2026, recapping 2025. How was it for gaming for me?
*Running Dungeon Fantasy*
I GMed 17 sessions of DF Felltower this year.
Session 203, Br...
Shadow of the Torturer (review)
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Shadow of the Torturer (1980), by Gene Wolfe, the first part in The Book of
the New Sun series, is an amazing work; so much that the first thing I
consider...
On a Happy New Year
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We are about to experience the most social upheaval since industrialization.
What will that look like in sixty years?
Sinless is starting it's third yea...
May the Dice be Kind to You in 2026
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Me, when some of my graduate students tell me that they are into
role-playing games:
Me, when it becomes clear that by "role-playing games" they mean
ex...
Secret Santicorn 2025: Two Forges
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The Forge of Yakul
Yakul was obliterated, and his temples were sunk. Memories of the dead god
were struck from the souls of men. A heavy punishment was ...
2025 Year End Roundup
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AI Is Everywhere Gaming in 2025 started slow with the usual Wednesday night
on Roll 20 that I’ve been in since March of 2014. We’re on campaign 3.5,
which ...
[BLOG] News on the March! Episode XII.
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This post continues the series of brief play reports I have been posting on
Discord. This does not cover every single session (sometimes, recon and
setup...
OSR: Treasure for Dungeon / Room Stocking
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Dungeon stocking is tricky. Over and over, people ask "How much treasure
should I include per room / dungeon level / PC?"
The answer varies enormously be...
Weather in the Yatil Mountains
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The players in my D&D campaign will soon be headed into the Yatil Mountains
in search of the lost treasure hoard of the Archmage Iggwilv (see module
S4: ...
Mutants and Wizards
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Heya folks, long time no see.
I've just started working on something new called Mutants and Wizards. It's
going to be an OSE/OSR post-apocalyptic game t...
Ten Friggin Hill Cantons Wizards
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10 Wizards of the Hill Cantons
#
Name
Description
1
Magister Dobromil the Cauterizer
Specializes in magical “cleaning” of reality leaks. Wears fou...
Rob Kuntz at Lucca Comics & Games 2025
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If you are planning a trip to Europe (like right now) and wish to catch up
with me in person, make sure to book a detour via *Lucca Comics & Games*,
...
Musings on the OSR Blogosphere and Forums
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Link to discussion There are some posts on the historical OSR blog scene
that I’ve read recently from the Grumpy …
Continue reading →
How do you do piracy… in SPACE!?
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Interstellar space travel in Iridium Moons was always going to be a form of
hyperspace jump like in Star Wars or Traveller. Simply because it’s the one
for...
A long overdue hobby update!
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Welcome back to the Vault everyone! 2025 is going by in a blur; I last
posted in February, almost started a post in March and now it's the end of
May. W...
Playing at the World 2E V2 Arrives
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With the release of its second volume, the second edition of *Playing at
the World *is finally complete. The two books combined total well over
1,000 ...
Blogs on Tape season 6 has begun!
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Hi everybody! Its been a minute. How are you? Everything is awful all the
time? Horrors never cease? You’re being driven mad by the weight of the
unfathoma...
Articulations
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Creating house rules, custom rules specific to a local group or campaign,
has been common throughout the history of D&D. What makes an effective
house rule...
Writing playlists for all occasions
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Hello again! Going off the idea of inspiration elaborated on by the prior
post, I also have music playing while I write my various games and fiction
pieces...
The Tarot of Pips
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Somewhere in your dice collection is a die like this one, the humblest of
dice. Although you don't know it, this small white die carries with it a
secr...
Pirates and Necromancers, a Play Report
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Over the Thanksgiving weekend we did a lot of gaming ranging from
“off-table” domain level stuff to some solo adventures to spell and magic
item rese...
It's been a bit
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Hey everyone, I hope you are doing well! I've had a lot going on and
haven't had much time to blog lately. Heres a recap of gaming events and
other st...
*'s in SpaaaaaAaaaace
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A lot of SF (including a certain 2D6 RPG grandaddy) deal with ancient
aliens taking humans from Earth and dropping them, fleas and all, on one or
more w...
Last move - to self-hosting!
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As my vote regarding Substack in the “marketplace of ideas”, I’m moving to
self-hosting.
I’m now at (and hopefully staying for a long time at)
Blog: ht...
Clean Your Room
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Looking back at my little blog here. That last post… wow, I was having fun
playing WOW Classic! That was August of 1999 and I was having a blast… it
was ...
Steve Jackson Interview
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James Maliszewski recently did an interview with Steve Jackson over on his
Grognardia blog. Steve chats about the beginnings of The Fantasy Trip and
upcomi...
ToAD Monster of the Week: Crocoman
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Now that I'm back doing the blog thing I thought I would use Tome of
Adventure Design to create monsters for The Black Hack.
Using the monster tables in th...
Strange, Dangerous, and Inhuman: The Fey and Fairie
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When I was a boy I loved fairy tales. Jack and the Beanstalk, Puss in
Boots, Rumpelstiltskin - I devoured all of it. My fascination that there
was a strang...
Dungeons & Dragonmead Fall Schedule
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*As you know, I run public classic Dungeons & Dragons games at **The Loaded
Die**/Metro Detroit Game Night's Board Game Nigh at **Dragonmead**, in
Warren...
Fiction in Airhde
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On a whim this weekend, I picked up some fiction off the TLG store. *A
Houseless God & Other Tales* and *The Mirrored Soul & Other Tales*, both by
the T...
Ravensburg Reboot: Streamlined City Map
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I mentioned in my last post how I was tweaking and reworking parts of my
Ravensburg setting. Today I streamlined the city map. The old map had lots
of redu...
The Withered Crag available now
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I just enabled the sale of the PDF version of The Withered Crag at
DriveThruRPG a few minutes ago, and the custom print version will be
available startin...
Annihilation Rising Goes live
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The latest in Fail Squad Games’ Quick Kick projects has gone live and needs
your support!! This project is only running 11 days and ends on 5/28/2019!
...
James's Celebration of Life
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We could not have asked for a prettier day for James's service. It was a
bit chilly and windy but gorgeous. A heartfelt thank you to all that joined
us tod...
Trap Tuesday: A step back
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I will get back to Tomb of Horrors soon. I found a topic that was
interesting enough to take a break. While interacting in a 5E group on
Facebook I talked ...
Let's Talk About Pacing!
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The idea, I think, is that the RPG is ultimately about the long game. Even
rolling back to the early days of Basic & Expert, the goal of the player
was...
Profane and Profound Prep Part 2
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This is part 2 of my work to edit my magic items for a DMsGuild release,
along with adding cursed items along the way. Here is part 1. Bone of a
Saint 8000...
Please, I don't do paid advertisements - don't ask.
-
A little note since people have asked me about this. My video channel's
*not* an advertising platform, so I'm not available for hire if you want to
promote...
New website!
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Slowly but surely, all the content here will make its way — in updated
form! — to my new website: timbannock.com. For fairly obvious reasons, that
site wil...
Please Update Your Link!
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If you're seeing this, it means your link to the Greyhawk Grognard blog is
out of date.
Please update your link to www.greyhawkgrognard.com (RSS feed is
h...
Total Sales for WB:FMAG
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Hi Folks,
It's been a long time since I provided an update for the sales of White
Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game.
*LULU*
Print: 396
PDF: 433
*OBS*...
How can We Destroy this Campaign World?
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d12
1. You must trick a bard into strumming the *Chords of Fate* on the *Lute
of Annihilation*
2. Legends tell of thermonuclear weapons beneath megadunge...
Mord Mar - Session 5
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We had another successful delve into the dungeon yesterday. The delvers:
Moira, the Magic-User
Radovan - Human Cleric (of Odin?)
Khazgar Stonehand - Dwarf ...
Bundle of Fantasy Age
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Bundle of Holding: Dragon Age/Fantasy Age: Available until March 12. PA
Presents: Fantasy AGE Freeport live play Green Ronin in 2018 The Fantasy
Age RPG ma...
New Free PDF Module: The Hyqueous Vaults
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A new dungeon module—written in celebration of OSRIC's 10th Birthday—by
Rebecca Dettmann, Allan T. Grohe, Jr., Jimm Johnson, Matthew Riedel, Alex
Zisch, a...
Swords & Wizardry Light: Session # 6
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Two months after our last session (thanks to things like 8th grade finals,
a 4 year-old's birthday and party, Father's Day, etc.), we finally had our
next ...
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